Texas to receive more than 1.3 million doses of Pfizer’s pediatric vaccine

The Texas Department of State Health Services has instructed the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention to ship Pfizer’s pediatric COVID-19 vaccine to over 900 providers in 155 Texas counties over the next week.

The CDC will deliver 1,010,700 doses of the vaccine to Texas vaccine providers and 349,200 doses will be delivered to pharmacies in the federal pharmacy program to vaccinate children between the ages of 5 and 11.

More than 400,000 doses of vaccine have already arrived with 162,000 expected to arrive today, and delivery of the full amount will continue through the next week.

“Vaccinating children between the ages of 5 and 11 helps to protect all Texans from COVID-19,” said Dr. John Hellerstedt, DSHS commissioner. “Twenty-two Texas children between the ages of 5 and 11 have died from complications of COVID-19 and 118 have been diagnosed with Multisystem Inflammatory Syndrome in Children. The pediatric vaccine will further help reduce the spread of disease and prevent the rare but serious complications of COVID-19 in this age group.”

The Food and Drug Administration issued an emergency use authorization for the pediatric vaccine on Friday, and vaccine started arriving in Texas on Monday. The CDC issued its clinical guidance for providers yesterday. A list of providers receiving the pediatric vaccine is available at the Pediatric Vaccine Provider Allocation List.

The pediatric vaccine comes in a different formulation from the vaccine approved for adults, so it is important to seek out providers who have received the pediatric vaccine when getting children in this age group vaccinated.

Most vaccine shipments are expected to arrive in the next week, and DSHS recommends making an appointment or checking with the provider before going to get vaccinated.

There are approximately 2.9 million children ages 5 to 11 in Texas.